brows lifted in bewilderment. ‘No intention? Then why on earth would he—’
‘I think a weird mixture of family pride and his innate streak of extravagance persuaded him into wasting his inheritance here even though he found island life boring. Although Trilis is quite a reasonable size, it couldn’t possibly offer him the social life he enjoyed in Athens.’
‘So, you didn’t grow up here on the island?’ Winnie asked, determined to satisfy her curiosity now that Eros was finally answering her questions.
‘No, I grew up in an Athens apartment, almost exclusively with my mother. She’s gone now too,’ Eros confided flatly. ‘So are my grandparents on both sides. There is only me and Teddy and now you in the Nevrakis family. There are a few distant cousins attending the reception but no close relations. I’m surprised you didn’t invite your foster parents.’
Winnie went pink and trotted out her excuses about how difficult it was for either John or Liz to leave home even for a short time. ‘As foster carers they have constant meetings with social workers, schools, birth parents.’
An ebony brow slanted up. ‘Still, you were very fond of them as I recall and I’m sure they would’ve made a special effort.’
‘I didn’t want to put them under that pressure,’ Winnie muttered in desperation. ‘John’s health can be dicey.’
It was a relief to step out into the sunlight again and see her sisters emerging from the car behind. They all stared at the house, which she thought was stupendously large for a property in which Eros’s father had apparently not planned to live. Extravagant, Eros had labelled his father, and Winnie was inclined to agree as they entered a grand marble-floored hall to be greeted by staff offering drinks on silver trays.
Her grandfather strolled to her side. ‘It is done,’ he pronounced with satisfaction. ‘The ring you deserve is on your finger now.’
Winnie looked down at her finger uncomfortably just as Eros stretched out a hand to her, obviously keen to introduce her to some of the guests arriving. The next hour and more passed in a whirl of introductions and harmless chatter, by which time Teddy was flagging, hungry and overtired.
‘I took the liberty of bringing in a nanny for the day,’ Eros murmured, disconcerting his bride. ‘Teddy can have an early lunch and a nap to recoup his energies while the adults celebrate.’
Winnie could not argue with such a sensible suggestion and the warm, friendly woman who approached with a ready smile was very different from the coldly efficient carer Eros had hired in London for the zoo trip. Agathe swiftly gained her son’s trust and, with his aunt Zoe’s comforting presence secured as well, Teddy had no objection to being carried off upstairs.
In the doorway of a vast pillared ballroom full of tables and chairs for the reception, Winnie paused and swallowed her surprise. ‘I expected a canvas marquee in the garden,’ she admitted.
‘No, my father covered even the most remote possibilities when he built this place,’ Eros confided with rueful amusement. ‘And perhaps you can also see why he eventually ended up bankrupt.’
As they were escorted to the top table, Winnie scanned the fabulous view of the sea and the island from the house’s splendid clifftop location. A wall of glass ran down one side of the ballroom, multiple doors opening out onto a furnished terrace. Her curious gaze lingered on the borrowed yacht dominating the little harbour and she paled, losing her focus again. Soon, soon, she reminded herself, she would be sailing away with Teddy and her sisters and this nightmare wedding would simply be like something from a bad dream that she would never have to think about again.
Long brown fingers feathered down her rigid spine and her entire body tingled, locked into sudden instinctive craving. She glanced up at Eros from beneath her feathery lashes and, with a husky growl deep in his throat, he reached for her, taking her so much by surprise that she simply froze, locked into place like a statue.
His firm, yet soft lips forced hers apart and his tongue delved and she shook and shivered as a gathering storm of sensation bombarded her. In all her life she had never wanted anything as much as she wanted Eros at that moment. A piercing dart of feverish longing shot from low in her body, rousing sweet tingling heat, clenching the muscles in her pelvis so tight she gasped, even more painfully aware of the response between her thighs.
‘Thee mou... I want you,’ Eros muttered roughly into her hair as he jerked his mouth off hers again as though he had been burned.
And in a way, they had both been burned, Winnie acknowledged feverishly, conscious of the tiny tremors racking the lean, powerful body melded to hers and the thrusting proof of his arousal. She still wanted him; it made her hate herself but Winnie had never been the sort to deny an obvious truth. The same passionate attraction that had blindsided them the first time around hadn’t died and hadn’t been conquered by common sense or pride or even guilt. She was ashamed of it, ashamed of the shake in her hand as she used the table to steady herself on locked knees that still trembled. It was a moment when she was almost grateful for the reminder of how much power Eros could still have over her and how very dangerous he could be to her peace of mind. Been there, done that, got Teddy... Never again, she told herself with finality.
* * *
‘Your nerves are showing,’ Vivi whispered under cover of releasing her sister’s gown from where it had caught on her high-heeled sandal.
Winnie compressed her lips. ‘I’m no good at faking it,’ she admitted.
‘Good news on my wedding night,’ Eros murmured sibilantly, lean hands splaying possessively across her hips from behind, the combination of both voice and touch very nearly inducing a panic attack in Winnie as her triangular face flared hotter than hellfire.
Winnie barely touched the meal set in front of her. She nudged stuff round the plate, trying to conceal her lack of appetite. She listened to the world-famous harpist playing atmospheric Greek folk songs, tapped her foot with determination when livelier music followed and only tensed when her grandfather caught her eye with a faint tilt of his chin. Almost as quickly her sisters were approaching her, talking about needing to straighten her hair and, without hesitation, she slid out of her seat and followed them out of the reception to the palatial cloakroom.
‘There’s a car waiting at the back entrance. All you have to do is walk out across the courtyard garden,’ Vivi began tautly.
‘I can’t leave without Teddy!’ Winnie gasped in consternation.
‘Grandad’s men are fetching Teddy,’ Zoe told her soothingly. ‘We only have to get down to the harbour.’
Winnie didn’t feel comfortable walking out of a house where her son slept upstairs, unaware of his family’s departure but her sisters were as nervous as she was, and nerves made the two younger women assertive, thrusting her through the French windows into the fresh air, both of them catching onto her wrists, urging her in the right direction, giving her no chance to change her mind.
‘This doesn’t feel right,’ she protested in the courtyard garden, a sunny tranquil space that mocked the drama being enacted.
‘We need to get out of here...fast!’ Vivi exclaimed impatiently, pushing her sister through the gate into the rear lane where an SUV idled its engine in readiness.
Having been alerted by the security team he had engaged, Eros observed their departure from the same rear hallway. A kind of white-hot rage unlike anything he had ever felt before surged through him when he saw Winnie pass through the last barrier in the direction of the waiting car.
His wife walking out on him.
Nothing could’ve prepared him for that view. Nothing until that instant could’ve persuaded him that Winnie would do anything so dishonest as to enter a church with him, speak marital vows and then take off like a bat out of hell afterwards. But there she was, the living proof of his delusional belief that she was different from the other women he had known. And the truth was that she wasn’t one